Sophie's Friend in Need

by Norma Charles

  Sophie tore down the path to the slick ramp, tripping once and skinning her knee. Someone was in a canoe and paddling toward open water! “Ginette, is that you?” she nearly yelled. She flashed her flashlight and captured a glimpse of yellow. Ginette’s yellow rain jacket! And she wasn’t wearing a life preserver! Waves buffeted the boat, but Ginette was paddling determinedly away from the dock.

  “Ginette! Where do you think you’re going? Come back here right now!” Sophie demanded. Ginette didn’t even glance around. She kept her head low and paddled away, picking up speed, the bow of the canoe slicing through the waves.

  Sophie hesitated. Should she run and tell Miss Rosy? Wake up everyone? They would both get into such terrible trouble if Miss Bottomly found out. They’d probably lose about a thousand points. Maybe they’d even be sent home!

  Sophie slid down the steep ramp to the dock. She would have to get Ginette back herself. “Ginette! Come back here!”

  Ginette continued paddling.

  Sophie rushed to the pile of life preservers. She had to watch her step because the wet boards on the dock were so slippery. She seized one of the life preservers, pulled it over her head, and fumbled with the ties, then took a deep breath. The life preserver gave her courage. It was like tying on a Star Girl cape.

  She had to get a life preserver out to Ginette. The girl’s canoe could easily capsize in the wind. Sophie had to get her back. What did she think she was doing? Where could Ginette be going? Should she wake up Miss Rosy? By the time she got here, though, it might be too late. Ginette’s canoe might have tipped over by then, and without a life preserver...

  “A Star Girl rescue,” Sophie announced out loud. “That’s what’s needed here. I’ll convince Ginette to come back. She’s such a little kid, I should be able to catch up with her in no time at all.”

  NINE

  Sophie grabbed another life preserver and a paddle and untied the closest canoe, which was bouncing against the dock. Gingerly she stepped into the centre of the boat, pushed off from the dock with her paddle, and began paddling for all she was worth. The canoe bounced up with every wave, but Sophie stroked as hard as she could, digging into the waves, first on one side, then on the other, trying to keep the boat going in a straight line.

  “Come on, Star Girl!” she panted. “Come on!”

  Although she was kneeling on the bottom of the canoe, it felt really tippy in the choppy water. She figured this must be what it was like on the back of a galloping horse. You could be bucked off at any moment.

  It didn’t take long to paddle out of the calmer area of the sheltered cove. But as the boat rounded the point, the wind and rain struck her with full force. The storm was so much wilder out here. It blew cold salt water onto her cheeks and lips, but she was hot inside her jacket. Hot with worry.

  She squinted straight ahead at the back of Ginette’s yellow jacket. Ginette wasn’t following the edge of the island. She was heading straight out into Howe Sound. Straight out into the dark, stormy, and deep water. It looked as if she was heading back to Porteau Cove!

  “Ginette! Don’t be a goof!” Sophie yelled her loudest, now that she was away from the camp. “Come back here! Where are you going?”

  But Ginette kept on paddling, not missing a single stroke. Not even glancing back at Sophie.

  Sophie paddled her hardest, ploughing into the waves, but she wasn’t gaining on Ginette at all. In fact, she seemed to be getting even farther away. Ginette could certainly paddle fast. They both paddled past rocks and reefs bashed by foaming waves.

  Sophie had no idea what time it was, just that it was the middle of the night. Although clouds filled the sky, she could still see well enough to make out the whitecaps raging around her canoe. There was a lightness in the sky, as though the full moon was doing its best to shine through a thin bank of clouds.

  Her shoulders and arms were aching, so she switched sides again, paddling on her left now. She breathed hard as she concentrated on steering the boat away from the rocks and keeping it upright.

  “This is really, really stupid,” she grumbled. “Stupid! Stupid!” She should have woken Miss Rosy and told her that Ginette was missing. But it was too late now. If she didn’t get to Ginette on time, no one would. And it would be all her fault.

  The rain and wind were still strong, but they were mostly at her back now. As she dug into the water with her paddle, she felt as if she were almost flying from frothy wave tip to wave tip. But she still wasn’t gaining on Ginette. She paddled for quite a long time, following Ginette out into the open water, keeping her eyes on the yellow coat and paddling her hardest. “Come on, Star Girl. You can do it! Come on. Come on,” she kept muttering to herself.

  Suddenly Ginette wasn’t there! She had vanished!

  “Oh, my gosh!” Sophie said out loud frantically. But then she spotted Ginette in the water. A wave had swamped her canoe, and now only the front tip of the boat was above water. It was sinking fast! Ginette struggled to stay afloat, slashing at the waves with one hand and clinging to the sinking canoe’s bow with the other, her eyes dark with terror in an ash-white face.

  Desperately Sophie paddled as she had never paddled before. She finally reached Ginette just as the canoe sank into the waves.

  “Here’s a life preserver!” Sophie shouted, breathing hard as she threw it toward the girl.

  Ginette snatched it and thrashed toward Sophie’s boat.

  “Come on, get in!” Sophie yelled as she paddled the canoe alongside Ginette.

  Ginette’s eyes were wild, her fair hair plastered to her head. She flailed around in the water and clutched at the side of the canoe. In a flash Sophie’s canoe lurched, flipped over, and dumped her into the sea, as well.

  “Sacré bleu!” she gasped as cold salt water rolled over her head. She swallowed a mouthful, but she bounced up to the surface like a cork, her life preserver snug around her neck. Sophie coughed and spat up water to clear her lungs and splashed toward the overturned canoe, grabbing at the hull. She didn’t see Ginette anywhere. Her heart pounded.

  “Ginette!” she screamed. “Ginette! Where are you?”

  A wave rolled over her, and for a moment she couldn’t see anything except blackness, but she bobbed back up to the surface again. She coughed some more, blew her nose, and rubbed her face, blinking hard to get the burning salt water out of her eyes. She was filled with terror.

  “Ginette! Where are you!” she screamed again. She had never been so scared.

  Then she saw Ginette clinging to the other side of the overturned boat with one hand and clasping the life preserver with the other. Another wave tumbled over them. Sophie squeezed her eyes shut and hugged the canoe with all her strength. When she caught her breath, she yelled at Ginette, “That was stupid! Stupid! Stupid! Stupid!”

  “Sorry,” Ginette muttered. “So sorry. I not mean to make boat go over.” There were tears in her husky voice.

  “So now what can we do?” Sophie asked desperately.

  Ginette just shook her head and clung to the overturned canoe and the life jacket, gasping for breath.

  The water was so cold that Sophie’s legs throbbed. Her whole body throbbed. She wriggled her toes to see if they were still there. They seemed to be. Her nightgown ballooned around her in the water. “Let’s head for that islet,” she yelled. “Kick hard. We’ll get there. Push the boat. Turn it right side up. Empty it somehow. Just hope it stays afloat.”

  Ginette nodded. She held on to her side of the canoe and kicked hard. Sophie kicked hard, too, her running shoes splashing behind her. She kept her eyes on the small rocky island jutting out of the waves. At first it looked as if they weren’t making any headway at all, but eventually the island seemed a little closer. Ginette stopped kicking.

  “Come on, Ginette, we’re almost there,” Sophie cried, panting. “Don’t stop! Kick! Kick!”

  Ginette began kicking again.

  The overturned canoe was very awkward to push through the water. After what
felt like hours, the boat banged against the rocks. Waves were splashing onto them. Sophie let go of the boat and clutched at the rocks. Ginette did, too.

  Sophie took a big breath of relief. The rocks were wet and cold, but they felt solid and safe. “We made it,” she muttered. “Oh, no!” she yelled as a wave pulled the boat away. “The boat! Grab it! Grab the canoe!”

  Sophie splashed after the boat, but it was too late. The current pulled the canoe away from the islet and out of her reach. She thrashed her way back, grasped a rounded rock, and pulled herself up onto it. It was smooth except for a few barnacles and shells and slimy seaweed. She reached down for Ginette’s hand and helped her scramble out of the water and up onto the rocks, as well. Then she scanned the dark water for the boat, but it was gone. Vanished without a trace.

  “The boat’s gone. What are we going to do?” Sophie swallowed back sobs, her voice sounding hoarse and broken.

  Ginette didn’t answer. She was huddled on the rock, her thin arms hugging her life preserver, her pale wet hair plastered against her scalp. She was shivering really hard.

  Sophie was trembling with cold, too. She pulled her jacket and sodden nightgown down over her knees and rubbed her eyes, then took another big breath. At least they were both out of the water, she told herself. She rocked back and forth, clasping her knees tightly, trying to stop shivering.

  Ginette opened her pale, smouldering eyes and stared at Sophie. “Why you came after me?”

  “What? I had to. You’re my buddy, my responsibility, remember? Why did you leave camp? Getting into that canoe in this storm in the middle of the night is about the stupidest thing I’ve ever heard of. Especially without a life preserver. You could have drowned out there!”

  Ginette shrugged and looked out at the wind-whipped waves.

  “Don’t you realize how dangerous it was?” Sophie asked.

  Ginette shook her head. “Not so dangerous. I have the dreidel.”

  “Dreidel?”

  Ginette fished a string from her shirt. It was hard to see in the dim light what dangled from the string, but it appeared to be a small four-sided toy.

  “What’s so special about that?” Sophie asked. “Looks like a stupid wooden top to me.”

  “Not stupid. Very special. My papa made it and it keep us safe.”

  Sophie shook her head. “Just because you have some lucky charm from your father, doesn’t mean it will save you when you do something stupid and dangerous. You were just lucky you didn’t drown. Anyway, we’ve got to get back to camp. Any ideas?”

  Ginette shook her head and continued staring out at the dark water.

  “I sure hope the tide isn’t rising,” Sophie said. “If it is, we’re in trouble. This whole islet will be covered with water pretty soon.”

  Each bank of waves that rolled toward the rocks seemed higher and higher. Now the waves were licking greedily at Sophie’s wet shoes. She pulled them under her and shifted uneasily to a higher rock, staring at the water and willing it to stop rising.

  TEN

  “Porteau,” Ginette mumbled. “I go to Porteau.”

  “Porteau? That’s where you were heading?”

  Ginette nodded.

  “But why? Even on a calm day that would be a long paddle from the camp. And dangerous, too. It would take you hours to get there in a canoe. And there’s nothing at Porteau. Just a bunch of boats.”

  “Have to go Vancouver.”

  “Vancouver? Why? We’ll all be going back home at the end of the week. That’s only five days away.”

  “My sister,” Ginette blurted out, “ma petite soeur. My little sister...”

  “What about your sister?”

  “She small, only seven years, and her ears, she not hear so good. Just me. She hear when I talk very slow right in her face.”

  “But what about your mom and dad?”

  Ginette shook her head. “Papa, he killed in war fighting in the underground for la Belle France. Five, six years now,” she said flatly. “And Maman, she not found yet. Maybe she dead, too.”

  “But who looks after you? Who do you live with?”

  “We have auntie. Ma tante Lise. But she sad. Sometime she not get up from her bed. She even sadder than when we live in refugee camp. So Selina, little sister, I look after her. Only me.”

  “I have a little brother,” Sophie said, nodding. “And sometimes when Maman is busy I have to look after him.”

  “Last week big, loud bang came à la porte,” Ginette said. “I not open it. Selina and me, we hide in closet. But after a while, landlady upstairs come down and unlock door and let in other lady. Social worker, she say, from Catholic Charities. She look all round kitchen. So big mess. Lots of dishes I not wash yet. Selina’s shirt still wet where she spill tea, so social worker take her away. And she take me and Auntie Lise away, too. And now Selina, she not have dreidel. No sleeping. Elle pleur. She cry all the time.”

  “She wants the dreidel?”

  Ginette nodded. “Selina always have it to sleep. I have to bring it to her. Papa tell me before he go away. Always stay with sister. I promise. For whole war, when we hide, in all the camps, I all the time stay with sister.”

  “But that’s no reason to leave our camp in that little canoe in the middle of a storm,” Sophie said.

  “I have to leave here. They will put me in another camp again and...and...”

  “And what?”

  Ginette shut her eyes and shivered. “Camp too terrible...”

  “What are you talking about? They’re all nice here. Even Miss Bottomly isn’t so bad.”

  Ginette shook her head and glanced at Sophie. “You think they all nice, but then they come for you in night and...and...” She shivered again, and her eyes filled with tears. She put her head on her arms. Sobs wracked her body as she rocked herself back and forth.

  Sophie was dumbfounded. She had heard stories on the radio, terrible stories about what had happened to people in refugee camps and concentration camps during the war, and after, especially to Jewish people. But those awful things happened just to adults, not to little kids, didn’t they?

  She was beginning to understand why Ginette was so desperate to get away. Sophie rubbed the girl’s back, trying to soothe away her sobs. Her back was so thin that Sophie could feel the sharp bones in her shoulders. Ginette soon stopped crying. She sniffed loudly and wiped her nose with the back of her hand.

  “So how come you’re here at this camp?” Sophie asked her.

  Ginette sighed. “Social worker say I go to camp until they find good home and family for me. But I say I already have family. I try to get away, but they watch all the time. And Selina, they take her to special school, they say. I think maybe she here at this camp. So I come. But she not here.”

  “Look, Miss Bottomly, the camp leader really is nice. I bet if we talk to her she’ll call the authorities and fix everything for you. She said that if anyone had any problems at all, just to go to her. She’ll know what to do.”

  Ginette stared at Sophie with narrowed eyes. “You think she nice? I not think so. She just pretend.”

  “What about Miss Rosy? You must like her. She’s really fun.”

  Ginette frowned. “Maybe Miss Rosy. Maybe not.”

  “Well, with no boat we can’t go anywhere, anyway. We’ll have to stay here until the morning. When Miss Rosy sees we’re gone, they’ll come out here and rescue us,” Sophie said with more confidence than she felt. She didn’t want to admit it, but the waves were definitely getting higher. “Come on. We’ll have to move up to that rock now,” she told Ginette.

  They crawled up to the highest rock on the islet and crouched beside a short, thick log that sheltered them a bit from the wind. The other rocks that made up the small islet had disappeared under the rising tide. And the rock they were perched on was coated with barnacles and slimy seaweed, which probably meant it spent a lot of time underwater.

  “Ginette,” Sophie said quietly, “it looks like this whole islet
will be underwater pretty soon. We’ll have to leave it whether we want to or not.”

  Ginette gazed out across the water at the dark bulk that was Porteau Cove and the mainland. She fingered the dreidel.

  “There’s no way we can make it to Porteau,” Sophie said. “So don’t even think about it. But I bet we could make it back to Gambier.”

  “But my sister...”

  “Look, when we get back to camp, I’ll talk to Miss Bottomly for you. I’ll ask her to find out where your sister is and make sure she gets the dreidel. We don’t have a choice. The waves will soon cover this rock. We have to get back to the island, then make our way back to camp.”

  Ginette was quiet for a while, then said, “Maybe I go to island but not to camp.”

  Sophie nodded. If she could get Ginette back to the island, she would talk to her then and convince her to go back to camp. First things first, though. How in the world were they going to get from the rock to the island? It was way too far to swim.

  Sophie looked around the rock they were perched on. There wasn’t much left of it, and the bit that remained was disappearing fast under the lapping waves. She felt panic rise in her chest.

  “Let’s use this log,” she said. “We can float on it like a raft and paddle it with our hands and feet. It shouldn’t be that hard to get to shore.” She knew she sounded a lot braver than she felt. Their tiny islet was growing smaller by the moment.

  Ginette agreed reluctantly. She pulled her life preserver on and tied it tightly.

  “Help me push the log into the water and then get on it,” Sophie said. They hurriedly got behind the log and pushed. “Push harder,” Sophie groaned.

  The log was amazingly heavy. They grunted and heaved, and finally it rolled off the rock and into the water. A wave splashed against the log and threatened to carry it away, but Sophie leaped into the shallow water and grabbed it. Surprisingly the water didn’t feel all that cold.

  “Here, I’ll hold the log steady while you get on,” Sophie said.